Berry.
To a quart of washed whortleberries, put a pint of flour in which you have put a small teaspoonful of salt. Add a very little water. That which is upon the berries will be nearly enough. Boil it two hours in a cloth tied close, allowing no room to swell. To be eaten with melted sauce.
Another.
A pint of berries, a pint of flour, a pint of sour milk, a teaspoonful of salt, and one of saleratus. Boil it two hours. All boiled fruit puddings should be turned often in the pot, to prevent the fruit from settling on one side. Make a sweet sauce.
Baked Indian.
Boil a pint of milk, and set it off from the fire. Then stir in a large teacup of Indian meal, a cup of finely chopped suet, half a cup of white flour, the same of molasses, and a teaspoonful each of salt, ginger, and cinnamon. Grease thick a deep fire-proof patty pan, or a brown earthen one with a small top, such as are made for baking beans, and pour in the mixture; then stir in half a pint of cold milk. Bake it in a moderate heat two hours. If you object to using suet, substitute two eggs well beaten. An excellent sauce for this, and all kinds of Indian pudding, is made by mixing sour cream and sugar, seasoned with nutmeg.
The modern ovens do not bake this kind of pudding as well as a brick oven.
Another (with Sweet Apples).
Pare twelve sweet apples and slice them, or take out the cores with a tap-borer. Stir up a pudding of a quart of milk, and almost a quart of Indian meal; the measure may be filled quite full by using a spoonful or two of wheat flour. Add some salt, ateacup of molasses, and a little chopped suet. The milk should be boiled, and after it is taken from the fire, the meal and other ingredients stirred in. Then pour the whole over the apples. Bake three hours.
Boiled Plum.
Put to a quart of boiled milk twelve pounded crackers, a quarter of a pound of suet, a pound of currants, half a pound of raisins, a little salt, and a teacup of molasses. Steam in a pudding-pan, or boil it three hours and a half in a cloth or buttered bowl. To be eaten with sauce.
Railroad.
One cup of molasses, one of sweet milk, one of suet or of salt pork chopped fine; four cups of flour, one teaspoonful of saleratus, and if suet is used, one of salt, one cup of chopped raisins, one of currants. Warm the molasses and stir the saleratus into it; mix the suet or pork with the flour, then stir all together, and steam it four hours, according to the directions for Steamed Brown Bread (see page31). Make a melted sauce, or the sour cream sauce.
Rice.
Wash a small coffee-cup of rice and put it into three pints of milk over night. In the morning add a piece of butter half as large as an egg, a teacup of sugar, a little salt, cinnamon, or nutmeg. Bake very slowly two hours and a half in a stove or brick oven. After it has become hot enough to melt the butter, but not to brown the top, stir it (without moving the dish if you can) from the bottom. If raisins are to be used, put them in now. They add much to the richness of the pudding. It is a very good pudding for so plain a kind, and is very little trouble. For a Sunday dinner, where a cooking stove is used, it is very convenient, as it employs but a few minutes to prepare it in the morning.
Sago.
Wash six table-spoonfuls of pearl sago and put it to soak in a large pint of warm water. Pare six good-sized, mellow, sour apples, and remove the cores with a tap-borer. Wash them, butter a deep pudding dish, and lay them in, with the open end up. Measure a teacup of sugar, fill the holes with it, and then grate half a nutmeg over the apples. Dissolve a little salt and the rest of the sugar, in the water with the sago; pour two thirds of the mixture over the apples, and set the dish in the oven or stove. After one hour take it out, pour the remainder of the sago and water into the dish, and press the apples down gently without breaking them. See that none of the sago lies above the water. Return the dish to the oven and bake it another hour. It is to be eaten with sugar and milk, or cream, and is a very delicate and healthful pudding.
Salem.
Three coffee-cups of flour, one of milk, one of chopped raisins, one of suet or salt pork chopped very fine, two thirds of a cup of molasses, a small teaspoonful of powdered cloves, half a nutmeg, a teaspoonful of saleratus, and if suet is used instead of pork, a little salt. Warm the molasses and dissolve the saleratus in it, mix the suet, flour, and raisins, then put all the ingredients together. Boil or steam it four hours. Make a melted sauce.
Suet.
A pint of suet chopped very fine, a pint of chopped apples, two gills of milk, a gill of molasses, a large teaspoonful of salt, and flour enough to make it rather stiff. Boil it four hours. This, and the last before it, should be boiled in a close tin pail or pudding pan, in a kettle of water.
Such a pudding as this is too hearty to be eaten after meat, and is substantial enough to constitute a dinner.
Apple Dumplings (boiled).
The best and most healthful crust for them is made like cream tartar biscuit, or with potatoes, according to the directions under the head ofPastry. It is better to make one or two large dumplings, than many small ones; because in drawing up the crust, there must necessarily be folds which, when boiled, are thick; and thus, in small dumplings, the proportion of crust to apple, is too great. Make a large crust and let the middle be nearly a third of an inch thick; but roll the edges thin, for the reason above mentioned. Wring a thick, square cloth in water, sprinkle it with flour, and lay it into a deep dish; lay the crust into it, and fill it with sliced apples; put the crust together and draw up the cloth around it. Tie it tight with a strong twine or tape, allowing no room for it to swell, and be sure to draw the string so close that the water cannot soak in. Boil a dumpling holding three pints of cut apple, two hours. When taken out of the pot, plunge it for a moment into cold water, then untie it and turn it out into a dish. Eat with cold sauce, or butter and sugar. Molasses and butter boiled together make a very good sauce for apple dumplings. The process of boiling molasses takes away, in some degree, its strong taste; and improves it for this purpose, and for making gingerbread. All boiled dumplings and puddings should be put into boiling water. Some persons prefer to boil dumplings in a buttered bowl, with a cloth tied close over it. This is a very good way.
Steamed.
Fill a tin pudding pan or pail three quarters with sour, sliced apples, lay upon the top a plain crust about an inch thick. Apiece of light bread dough, with a little butter rolled into it, or a crust made like cream of tartar biscuit, is better than pie crust for this purpose. See that there is room for the dough to swell. Shut the lid close, and set it on the top of the stove or range, an hour and a half before dinner time. If the apple juice boils over, move the pan to a cooler part of the stove. Make a sauce, or use instead, butter and sugar.
Baked.
Pare large, fair apples, and take out the cores, lay each one into a piece of plain pie crust, just large enough to cover it. Fill the centre of the apple with brown sugar, and add a little cinnamon, or small strips of fresh orange peel. Close the crust over the apple, and lay them, with the smooth side up, into a deep, buttered dish, in which they can be set on the table. Bake them in a stove an hour and a half. If, after an hour, you find that the syrup begins to harden in the bottom of the dish, put in half a gill of hot water. Make a cold, or melted sauce as you choose.
Blackberry (baked or steamed).
Put a small cup of berries and two teaspoonfuls of sugar into a crust large enough to contain them. To close the crust well, dip your fingers in water and then in flour, and thus paste the folds together. Lay as many dumplings as you wish to have into a deep patty-pan, because blackberries are a very juicy fruit. Bake them an hour and a quarter in a moderate heat. Make a cold sauce for them.
To steam them, put the fruit and crust into a tin pudding pan, exactly like steamed apple dumpling.
Roley Poley.
Make a potato crust, or a paste of light bread, with butter rolled in, or one of cream tartar biscuit, as you prefer; roll it narrow and long, about a third of an inch thick; spread it with raspberry jam or apple sauce; take care that this does not cometoo near the edge of the crust; roll it up and close the ends and side as tight as possible, to keep the sauce from coming out and the water from soaking it. Sew it up in a cloth, and boil it an hour and a half or two hours, according to its size. Make a sauce.
[The quart measure used in the following articles, and throughout this book, is the beer quart, except where asmallquart is specified. In cooking such dishes as those which immediately follow, the milk should always, as in making custards, be boiled in a pail set into a kettle of hot water. They are much more delicate than when it is boiled in a saucepan; and then there is no danger of its being burned.]
Potato Starch Flummery.
To one quart of boiled milk, put four beaten eggs and four spoonfuls of potato starch, wet in a little milk. Add the starch and a little salt first; then the eggs, and boil the whole a minute more. Take it up in a mould and eat it with sauce. Boil a few peach leaves in the milk if you like the flavor.
Ground Rice.
Measure a quart of milk, and then take out two cupfuls. Set the remainder into a kettle of hot water; then wet a teacupful of ground rice, and a teaspoonful of salt, with the reserved cold milk. When that which is in the kettle boils, add the ground rice mixture gradually, and continue to stir it, until it is well scalded, else it will be lumpy, or lie compactly at the bottom. Let it remain in the kettle eight or ten minutes, and stir it now and then. Just before you take it up, stir in a large table-spoonful of dry ground rice, and as soon as that is well mixed take the pail from the water-kettle, and put the mixture into a bowl, or blanc-mange mould, wet in cold water. If it is of the right consistency, it will turn out in good shape in fifteen or twenty minutes. To be eaten like blanc-mange with sugar andmilk or cream. It is nice cold, and if it is made for the next day, a half a spoonful less of dry rice will be enough. It should be only stiff enough to retain the shape. For this and all similar milk preparations, peach leaves are better than any spice. Boil in the milk three or four fresh leaves from the tree. Remember to take them out before you stir in the rice. If you put in too many, they will give a strong flavor to the article. Experience will teach how many to use.
Farina.
Set a pail containing a quart of milk into a kettle of boiling water. Put in a few pieces of stick-cinnamon. When the milk boils, take out the cinnamon and add a teaspoonful of salt, and stir in, very gradually, four table-spoonfuls of dry farina; beat out the lumps, and stir it often during the first ten minutes, then leave it to boil half an hour or more, remembering to stir it repeatedly during that time. Put it in a mould till the next day. Serve it as blanc-mange.
Made thin, like gruel, it is excellent food for young children.
Tapioca.
Soak a cup of tapioca in a pint of cold water over night; then boil it in a pint of milk with a little salt. Add any essence you choose. It is very good without. Serve it warm, and use sugar and cream.
Sago Apple.
Wash a table-spoonful and a half of pearl sago, and put it into a teacup of cold water to soak. Pare and slice very thin two fair sour apples, and boil them very soft in a teacup of water; then add the sago and water with half a teaspoonful of salt, and stir it every minute or two. Boil it till the sago and apple are perfectly mixed, then add a large spoonful of white sugar, and boil it a minute more. Set it off and add lemon (the essence or juice as you prefer). Put it in a mould, and serve it like blanc-mange.
This is a very good article for an invalid, leaving out the essence.
The same preparation of sago, and two or three table-spoonfuls of currant jelly dissolved in it instead of the apple, is very pretty, and good.
[In making blanc-mange, custards, ice-creams, &c., do not boil the milk in a sauce-pan, but set it, in a tin pail, into a kettle of boiling water. The milk does not rise, when boiled thus, as it does in a sauce-pan, but when the top is covered with foam, it boils enough.
In making ice cream, it is an improvement to churn the cream until it becomes frothy, before adding the other ingredients.]
Apple Island.
Stew apple enough to make a quart, strain it through a sieve, sweeten it with fine white sugar, and flavor it with lemon or rose. Beat the whites of six eggs to a hard froth, and stir into the apple slowly; but do not do this till just before it is to be served. The apples should be stewed with as little water as possible. Put it into a glass dish. Serve a nice boiled custard, made of the yolks of the eggs, to eat with it.
Apple Snow.
Put twelve large apples, without paring, into cold water enough to stew them. Boil them slowly; when they are very soft strain them through a sieve; beat the whites of twelve eggs to a stiff froth, then add to them half a pound of fine white sugar, and when these are well mixed, add the apple, and beat all together, until white as snow. Then lay it in the centre of a deep dish, heap it high as you can, and pour around it a niceboiled custard made of a quart of milk, and eight of the yolks of the eggs.
Floating Island.
Put the juice of two lemons, the whites of two eggs, three spoonfuls of currant jelly, and a gill and a half of fine sugar together and beat to a stiff froth; then put it into the middle of the dish, dress it with sweetmeats, and just before it is served, pour into the dish cream enough to float it.
Arrow-root Blanc-mange.
To three large spoonfuls of pure Jamaica arrow-root, a quart of milk, a large spoonful of fine sugar, a spoonful of rose-water, and a little salt. Reserve a gill of milk to wet the arrow-root, and boil the rest. When it boils up, stir in the arrow-root, and boil it up again a minute or two; add the sugar, salt, and rose-water, and put it into the mould.
Isinglass Blanc-mange.
Wash an ounce and a half of calf's-foot isinglass, and put it into a quart of milk over night. In the morning add three peach leaves, and boil it, slowly, twenty minutes or half an hour. Strain it into a dish upon a small teacupful of fine sugar. If it is to be served soon, add two or three beaten eggs while it is hot. Put it into the mould and set in a cool place. In hot weather this should be made over night if wanted at dinner the next day, as it hardens slowly.
Calf's Foot Blanc-mange.
Put four calf's feet into four quarts of water; boil it away to one quart, strain it, and set it aside. When cool, remove all the fat, and in cutting the jelly out of the pan, take care to avoid the sediment. Put to it a quart of new milk, and sweeten it with fine sugar. If you season it with cinnamon or lemon peel, put it in before boiling; if with rose or peach-water, afterwards; or, if you choose, boil peach leaves in it. Boil it ten minutes,strain it through a fine sieve into a pitcher, and stir it till nearly cold. Then put it into moulds.
Gelatine Blanc-mange.
Allow a quart of milk. Take a quarter of a paper of English gelatine, and put it into a gill of the milk to soften. In a quarter of an hour, set the remainder of the milk in a tin pail into a kettle of hot water, with a few sticks of cinnamon in it. When the milk boils (or foams up) add a small teaspoon of salt, and stir in the cold milk and gelatine. Stir it steadily a few minutes, till the particles of gelatine are dissolved, then put it into moulds. If lemon or some other essence is preferred to the cinnamon, add it after the pail is taken out of the hot water. A beaten egg is an improvement.
Moss Blanc-mange.
In making this blanc-mange as little moss should be used as will suffice to harden the milk. If the moss is old, more is necessary than if it is fresh. Allow half a teacupful for a quart of milk. Wash it, and put it in soak over night; in the morning, tie it up in a piece of muslin, and boil it in the milk, with sticks of cinnamon, the rind of a lemon, or peach leaves. Boil it gently twenty minutes or half an hour. Then put in half a salt-spoonful of salt, strain it upon a large spoonful of crushed sugar, and put it into a mould immediately, as it soon begins to harden. Eat it with sugar and milk or cream.
Charlotte Russe.
Make a boiled custard of a pint of milk and four eggs; season it with vanilla, or any essence you prefer; make it very sweet, and set it away to cool. Put a half an ounce of isinglass or English gelatine into a gill of milk where it will become warm. When the gelatine is dissolved, pour it into a pint of rich cream, and whip it to complete froth. When the custard is cold, stir it gently into the whip. Line a mould that holds aquart with thin slices of sponge cake, or with sponge fingers, pour the mixture into it, and set it in a cold place.
Calf's-foot Jelly.
Scald four calf's feet only enough to take off the hair, (more will extract the juices). Clean them nicely. When this is done, put them into five quarts of water and boil them until the water is half wasted; strain and set it away till the next day, then take off the fat and remove the jelly, being careful not to disturb the sediment; put the jelly into a sauce-pan with sugar, wine, and lemon juice and rind to your taste. Beat the whites and shells of five eggs, stir them in, and set it on the coals, but do not stir it after it begins to warm. Boil it twenty minutes, then add one teacupful of cold water and boil five minutes longer; set off the saucepan, and let it stand covered close half an hour. It will thus become so clear that it will need to run through the jelly bag but once.
Another (made of English Gelatine).
To one of the papers of gelatine containing an ounce and a half, put a pint of cold water; after fifteen minutes, add a quart of boiling water, and stir till the gelatine is dissolved. Then add a coffee-cup of sugar, the juice of a lemon, and the grated rind, or any other spice or essence you prefer, and just boil it up a minute. If the jelly is for an invalid, and wine is a part of the appropriate regimen, omit the lemon and spices, and add two gills of wine, after it is boiled. The gelatine is so pure, that the jelly need not be passed through a jelly-bag. This will keep several weeks in winter, and is convenient for persons who are in the habit of providing little delicacies for the sick.
Almond Custards.
Blanch and beat in a marble mortar, with two spoonfuls of rose-water, a quarter of a pound of almonds; beat the yolks of four eggs with two table-spoonfuls of sugar, mix the almonds with the eggs and sugar, and then add the whole to a pint ofcream, set into a kettle of hot water in a pail. Stir it steadily till it boils. Serve in little cups.
Boiled Custards.
Put a quart of milk into a tin pail or a pitcher that holds two quarts; set it into a kettle of hot water. Tin is better than earthen, because it heats so much quicker. Put in a few sticks of cinnamon, or three peach leaves. When the milk foams up as if nearly boiling, stir in six eggs which have been beaten, with two spoonfuls of white sugar; stir it every instant, until it appears to thicken a little. Then take out the pail, and pour the custard immediately into a cold pitcher, because the heat of the pail will cook the part of the custard that touches it, too much, so that it will curdle. This is a very easy way of making custards, and none can be better. But in order to have them good, you must attend to nothing else until they are finished. You may make them as rich as you choose. A pint of milk, a pint of cream, and eight eggs will make them rich enough for any epicure. So, on the other hand, they are very good with three or four eggs only to a quart of milk, and no cream.
Another (good, and very simple).
Boil a quart of milk in the way directed in the preceding receipt, excepting one gill; beat three or four eggs with three spoonfuls of fine sugar; wet three teaspoonfuls of arrow-root in the reserved gill of milk, then mix the beaten eggs and arrow-root together, and add a little salt. When the milk in the pail boils, stir them in, and continue to stir a minute or two, till the custard thickens. Then take the pail to the table and pour the custard into china cups (as glass will crack), or else into a cold pitcher. Use what seasoning you please. The old fashion of using cinnamon is economical and very good. Boil some pieces of cinnamon a few minutes only, in two or three spoonfuls of water. Put some of this into the custard, and put what is left into a vial for another time.
The Sandwich Island arrow-root is as good as the Bermuda for such purposes, and costs a third less.
Another (still more economical).
Put a quart of milk, excepting two gills, to boil in a kettle of water; with the reserved milk mix three large spoonfuls of flour till it is entirely smooth; add a little salt, and when the milk boils stir it in. Let the mixture remain in the boiling kettle half an hour, or if most convenient, still longer, while you attend to other things; but remember to stir it often. Beat one or two eggs with two or three spoonfuls of sugar, and stir in. Then take the pail to the table, and when the custard has stood a few minutes to cool, add any essence you prefer.
Baked Custards.
Boil the milk with a stick of cinnamon in it, then set it off from the fire, and while it cools a very little, beat (for a quart of milk) five or six eggs, with three large spoonfuls of fine sugar; then stir the milk and eggs together, and pour into custard-cups, or into a single dish that is large enough. If you bake in a brick oven, it is a good way to set custard, in cups, into it, after the bread and other things have been baked. They will become hard in a few hours, and be very delicate. If you bake in a stove, or range oven, it is best to use a dish, and bake it in a very moderate heat, else it will turn, in part, to whey.
Mix equal quantities of coarse salt and ice chopped small; set the freezer containing the cream into a firkin, and put in the ice and salt; let it come up well around the freezer. Turn and shake the freezer steadily at first, and nearly all the time until the cream is entirely frozen. Scrape the cream down often from the sides with a knife. When the ice and salt melt, do not pour off any of it, unless there is danger of its getting into the freezer; it takes half an hour to freeze a quart of cream; and sometimes longer. A tin pail which will hold twice the measure of the cream, answers a good purpose, if you do not own a freezer. In winter, use snow instead of ice.
Several nice receipts for ice-creams will be given under this head, but a common custard, made of rich milk, two or three eggs, and a little arrow-root, and seasoned with lemon or vanilla, makes an excellent ice-cream.
A rich Ice-cream.
Squeeze a dozen lemons, and strain the juice upon as much fine sugar as it will absorb; pour three quarts of cream into it very slowly, stirring very fast all the time.
Another.
A quart of new milk, a quart of cream, a pint of sugar, three eggs, a large spoonful of arrow-root or ground rice, a piece of cinnamon. Boil the milk with the cinnamon in it; when it boils up, stir in the arrow-root or ground rice, wet with a little milk; set it off the fire, stir in the cream, the sugar and eggs. The eggs should be beaten a good deal, and then beaten several minutes in the cream before being put into the boiled milk; add vanilla or lemon as you prefer.
Another (simple, but very good).
Heat a quart of milk quite hot, but do not let it boil; add the yolks of four eggs, beaten, with a large coffee-cup of fine sugar, and flavor with lemon or vanilla.
Apricot.
Pare, stone, and scald twelve ripe apricots; then bruise them in a marble mortar. Then stir half a pound of fine sugar into a pint of cream; add the apricots and strain through a hair sieve. Freeze and put it into moulds.
Peaches would be a good substitute for the apricots, using, if they are large, nine, instead of twelve.
Strawberry or Raspberry.
Bruise a pint of raspberries, or strawberries, with two large spoonfuls of fine sugar; add a quart of cream, and strain through a sieve, and freeze it. If you have no cream, boil a spoonful of arrow-root in a quart of milk, and, if you like, beat up one egg and stir into it.
Currant.
Take a gill of fresh currant juice, make it very sweet, and stir in half a pint of cream and freeze it. In the winter, or when fresh currants are not to be had, beat a teaspoonful and a half of currant jelly with the juice of one lemon, sweetened, and put to it half a pint of cream.
Lemon.
Having squeezed your lemons, add sugar enough to the juice to make it quite sweet, and about a third as much water as to make lemonade; strain it, and then freeze it.
Imperial Cream.
Boil a quart of cream with the thin rind of a lemon; then stir it till nearly cold; have ready, in the dish in which it is to be served, the juice of three lemons, strained, with as much sugar as will sweeten the cream; pour the cream into the dish, from a teapot or pitcher, holding it high and moving it about so as to mix thoroughly with the juice. It should be made six hours before being served. Eat with sweetmeats, apple island, or apple-pie.
Snow Cream.
To a quart of cream add the whites of three eggs, cut to a stiff froth, four spoonfuls of sweet wine, sugar to your taste, and a little essence of lemon, or the grated rind; whip it to a froth, and serve in a glass dish.
If you have not a whisk such as is made expressly to whip cream, it can be easily, though not as quickly done, with a spoon.After the materials are mixed, beat them, not over and over like the yolks of eggs, but back and forth, keeping the spoon below the surface; and as fast as the froth forms, take it off and lay it into the dish, or glasses, for the table. It will not return to the liquid state. If it were to stand several days it would become crisped in the form in which it was left.
Wine Custard.
Beat the yolks of three eggs with two spoonfuls of crushed sugar, and cut the whites to a stiff froth; put them into the dish which is to go to the table, and add a quart of milk, and a few drops of peach or rose-water, and when these are well mixed, stir in a spoonful and a half of rennet wine. In cold weather, the milk should be warmed a little; in warm weather it is not necessary. It should be immediately set where it will not be disturbed. It will harden soon, perhaps in five minutes. This depends somewhat on the strength of the rennet, and the measure of wine necessary to harden a quart of milk will depend on this. Sometimes a spoonful will prove enough. There is no way to judge but by trying, as in using rennet for making cheese. The strength of this article varies exceedingly.
It is a very good, and more economical way to warm the milk a little, sweeten it, and add nothing but the rennet wine, and grate nutmeg over the top. Soda biscuit or butter crackers are good with wine custard.
Stained Froth.
Take the whites of three or four eggs, and cut them to a stiff froth, then beat into them the syrup of damsons, blood-peaches, or any highly colored preserve. This makes an elegant addition to a dish of soft custard. Some persons, when making custards, lay the white of eggs, cut in this way, upon the top of the boiling milk for a minute or two. This hardens it, and it is taken off upon a dish, and when the custard glasses are filled, a piece of it is laid upon the top of each.
A kettle should be kept on purpose. Brass, if very bright, will do. If acid fruit is preserved in a brass kettle which is not bright, it becomes poisonous. Bell-metal is better than brass, and the iron ware lined with porcelain, best of all.
The chief art in making nice preserves, and such as will keep, consists in the proper preparation of the syrup, and in boiling themjust long enough. English housekeepers think it necessary to do them very slowly, and they boil their sweetmeats almost all day, in a jar set into a kettle of water. Brown sugar should be clarified. The crushed and granulated sugars are usually so pure as not to require being clarified. Loaf sugar is the best of any. Clean brown sugar makes very good sweetmeats for family use; but the best of sugar is, for most fruits, necessary, to make such as will be elegant, and keep long.
Sweetmeats should be boiled very gently lest the syrup should burn, and also that the fruit may become thoroughly penetrated with the sugar. Furious boiling breaks small and tender fruits. Too long boiling makes sweetmeats dark, and some kinds are rendered hard and tough.
Preserves keep best in glass jars, which have also this advantage, that you can see whether or not fermentation has commenced, without opening them. If stone jars are used, those with narrow mouths are best, as the air is most easily excluded from them; and small sized ones, containing only enough for once or twice, are best, as the frequent opening of a large jar, injures its entire contents, by the repeated admission of the air. When sweetmeats are cold, cover them close, and if not to be used soon, paste a paper over the top, and with a feather, brush over the paper with white of egg. When you have occasion to open them, if a thick, leather-looking mould covers them, they are in a good state, as nothing so effectually shuts out the air; but if they are specked here and there with mould, tastethem, and if they are injured, it should be carefully removed, and the jar set into a kettle of water (not hot at first, lest it should crack) and boiled. If the taste shows them to be uninjured, this mould may be the beginning of a leather-mould; therefore wait a few days, and look at them again, and scald them if necessary. A very good way of scalding them, and perhaps the easiest, is to put the jar (if it is of stone ware) into a brick oven as soon as the bread is drawn, and let it stand three or four hours. If the oven is quite warm a shorter time will do. This, or setting the jar into a kettle of water, as mentioned above, is much better than to scald them in the ordinary way, as they are exposed to the air when poured into the preserving kettle, and also when returned to the jar.
In making jellies, the sugar should be heated and should not be added, until the fruit-juice boils; and for this reason,—that the process is completed in much less time than if they are put together cold. Thus the diminution of the quantity, which long boiling occasions, is avoided, and the color of the jelly is much finer. Sometimes ladies complain that, for some inexplicable reason, they cannot make their currant jelly harden. The true reason was doubtless this,—that while making it, it was suffered to stop boiling for a few minutes. Let it boil gently but steadily, until by taking a little of it into a cold silver spoon, you perceive that it quickly hardens around the edges. A practised eye will readily judge by the movement of the liquid as it boils. Put jelly in little jars, cups, or tumblers; when it is cold, paste paper over the top and brush it over with white of egg. Whenthisis used, the old method of putting brandy papers upon jelly is unnecessary.Particular attention is requested to these suggestions in regard to making jellies.
To make Syrup for Preserves.
Put a large teacup of water for every pound of sugar. As it begins to heat, stir it often. When it rises towards the top of the kettle, put in a cup of water; repeat this process two or three times, then set the kettle aside. If the sugar is perfectlypure, there will be no scum on the top. If there is scum, after it has stood a few minutes, take it off carefully. If the syrup then looks clear, it is not necessary to strain it.
To clarify sugar, put into every two pounds a beaten white of an egg. Five whites will do for a dozen pounds. Proportion the sugar and water as directed above, and after it has boiled enough take it from the fire, and let it stand ten minutes, then take the scum very carefully from the top, and pour off the syrup so gently as not to disturb the sediment. Have the kettle washed, return the syrup, and add the fruit. Some persons always strain the syrup through a flannel bag, but if the above directions are observed, it is not necessary. To use a flannel bag, always wring it very dry in hot water. This prevents a waste of the article strained. The bag should be soft, and not fulled up.
To preserve Apples.
Weigh equal quantities of Newtown pippins, and the best of sugar; allow one sliced lemon for every pound. Make a syrup, and then put in the apples. Boil them until they are tender; then lay them into the jars and boil the syrup until it will become a jelly. No other apple can be preserved without breaking. This keeps its shape, and is very beautiful. Quarter the apples, or take out the core and leave them whole, as you prefer. Other sour hard apples are very good preserved, but none keep as well, or are as handsome as the Newtown pippins.
Crab Apples.
Weigh them, and put them into water enough to almost, but not quite, cover them. Take them out when they have boiled three or four minutes, and put into the water as many pounds of sugar as you have of fruit, and boil it till clear, then set it aside till it is cold; skim it, and return the fruit to the kettle, and put it again on the fire. The moment it actually boils take it off; lay the fruit into the jar with care, so as not to break it.
Pine-apples.
Take equal quantities of pine-apple and the best of loaf sugar. Slice the pine-apple, put nearly or all the sugar over it. Put it in a deep pan, and let it stand all night. In the morning take the apple out and boil the syrup. When it begins to simmer, put the apple in and boil fifteen or twenty minutes. Tie a piece of white ginger in a bit of muslin, and boil it in the syrup before adding the apple. After boiling the whole ten or fifteen minutes, take out the apple and boil the syrup ten minutes longer; then pour it over the pine-apple. The apples should be ripe, and yet perfectly sound. If the syrup does not taste enough of ginger, boil it with the ginger till it suits the taste.
Pine-apples (without boiling).
Select large, fresh pine-apples. Pare them with a very sharp knife, having a thin blade. Carefully remove the little prickly eyes. Slice the fruit round and round about half an inch thick. Weigh a pound and a quarter of best granulated sugar, to a pound of fruit; and put into a glass jar a layer of sugar, and then a layer of fruit till it is filled. Make the layers of sugar very thick, else you will have a quantity left when the fruit is all laid in. Cover the jar close, and set it in a very cold place. This will keep perfectly, and have the taste of freshly sugared pine-apples a year afterward.
Blackberries.
To a pound of the low, running blackberries, allow a pound of fine sugar. Put them together in the preserving kettle, the fruit first, and the sugar on the top. These berries are so juicy that no water will be necessary; but they must begin very slowly to stew, and boil gently an hour. If blackberries are well done at first, they will not need scalding afterwards.
The high blackberries are not good preserved, but make an excellent syrup for medicinal purposes.
Currants.
Weigh equal quantities of sugar, and fruit stripped from the stems. Boil the fruit ten minutes, stirring it often, and crushing it. Add the sugar, and boil another ten minutes. Measure the time from the minute boiling commences. This keeps till currants come again. Clean brown sugar does very well. If it is to be used up in the course of the autumn, ten or twelve ounces of sugar to a pound of fruit is enough.
Cranberries.
Pour scalding water upon them, as this will make it much more easy to separate the defective ones from the good, than if they are washed in cold water. Measure the fruit, and allow two quarts of sugar for five of fruit. Boil the cranberries till they are soft in half as much water as fruit. Stir them very often. When they are soft add the sugar, and boil gently as possible half an hour more. They are very liable to burn, and therefore should be carefully attended to. If you like cranberry sauce very sweet, allow a pound of sugar for a pound of fruit.
Cranberries keep very well in a firkin of water in the cellar, and if so kept, can be stewed fresh at any time during the winter.
Damsons.
Wash, drain, and weigh them, put them into the kettle, and add the same weight of sugar and (to six or eight pounds) a pint of water. Boil them gently but steadily an hour; press the top ones down carefully, several times. They will break some, and the pricking each one with a needle before stewing them, makes little, if any difference. But they break less than other small plums, and are more solid. The syrup gives an elegant color to a beaten white of egg, for ornamenting custards or delicate puddings.
Other small sized blue plums are preserved in the same way.
Egg Plums.
To make the most elegant of all plum sweetmeats, take the Duane, or the Egg plums, ripe, but not very ripe. The skin can usually be pulled off. If you cannot remove it without tearing the fruit pour on boiling water, and instantly pour it off, or lay them into a cullender, and dip boiling water over them once. Allow equal quantities of fruit and sugar, and make the syrup in the usual way. Then lay in a few plums at a time, and boil gently five minutes; lay them into a jar as you take them from the kettle, and when all are done, pour the boiling syrup over them. After two days, drain off the syrup, boil it, and pour it upon them again. Do this every two or three days till they look clear. Then, if you wish the syrup to be very thick, boil it half an hour, and when cold, pour it upon the plums.
Peaches.
Select peaches that are ripe, but not soft. Pour boiling water upon them, and let it stand five or six minutes; then pour it off, and pull off the skins. This is the easiest way, and the most economical, as none of the peach is wasted with the skin. In a lot of peaches for preserving, there may be a few that you will have to pare; but most of them will part with the skin when scalded, except the cling-stones.
Weigh equal quantities of fruit (with the stones in), and fine sugar, and put them together in an earthen pan over night. The next day pour off the syrup, and boil it a few minutes; then set off the kettle and remove the scum. Return the kettle to the fire, and when it boils lay the peaches into it. Boil them very slowly three quarters of an hour, then lay them into the jars; boil the syrup fifteen minutes more, and pour over them.
The blood peaches are a beautiful fruit when preserved. The yellow cling-stone is handsome, but very inconvenient as the fruit adheres so closely to the stone. Almost any kind of peach is good, stewed in half a pound of clean brown sugar to a pound of stoned fruit, and will keep several weeks in the autumn.
Pears.
Weigh three quarters of a pound of sugar for a pound of pears. Boil the fruit whole, with the stems on in barely water enough to cover them, till they are tender, but not very soft. Then take them from the kettle, and put in the sugar, boil it ten or fifteen minutes, then set it off, and after removing the scum, put in the pears, and boil them till they begin to have a clear look. The difference in the size, and in the solidity of this fruit is so great that exact directions as to time cannot be given. When you have laid the pears into jars, boil the syrup another half hour, skim it if necessary, and then pour it upon the fruit. If you wish to give a more decided flavor to preserved pears, add peach water, or sliced lemons, when the syrup is boiling. Clean brown sugar does very well for preserving this fruit.
In selecting pears to preserve, choose such as are rather acid. The sweet ones are best baked. TheIron pears, if you will have patience to boil them long enough, make an excellent preserve. Divide them into halves or quarters if you choose. But they are often done whole. Boil them in just water enough, covered close, two or three hours. Make a syrup as directed above, and boil them in it an hour and a half.
Quinces.
Procure the apple, or orange quince. It is much less apt to be hard, when preserved, than the pear quince. Pare and core the fruit, and allow equal weights of fruit and fine sugar. Boil quinces in water enough to cover them, till they are tender; then take them out one by one with a silver spoon and lay them separately on a flat dish. Make a syrup and save all the water not used for it. When it is ready, return the fruit to the kettle, and boil it slowly three quarters of an hour, then lay it in jars, and pour the syrup over it. It is a good way to cut part of the quinces in halves, and preserve a part of them whole. Remove the cores with a fruit-corer, or if you have not this, use a common tap-borer; it answers the purpose very well.
Quinces with Sweet Apples.
To increase the quantity, without an addition of sugar, have as many large fair sweet apples pared, quartered, and cored, as will weigh one third as much as the quince. When the quince is boiled enough take it out, and put the sweet apples into the syrup, and boil them till they begin to look red and clear; an hour and a half will not be too long. Then put the quince and apple into the jars in alternate layers. The flavor of the quince will so entirely penetrate the apple, that the one cannot be distinguished from the other, and the sugar necessary to preserve the quince, will be sufficient for the apple.
Quinces (without boiling the Syrup).
Weigh twelve ounces of sugar for every pound of fruit. Boil the quinces in water enough to cover them, until they are so soft that care is necessary not to break them, in taking them out. Drain the pieces a little as you take them from the water, and put them into a jar in alternate layers with the sugar. Cover the jar closeas soon as it is filled, and paste a paper over the top. Quinces done in this way are very elegant, about the color of oranges, and probably will not need scalding to keep them as long as you wish. If any tendency to fermentation appears, as may be the case by the following April or May, set the jar (if it is stone) into a brick oven after bread has been baked, and the quince will become a beautiful light red, and will keep almost any length of time,and never become hard.
It may be well to mention that in damp houses, none of the fruits preserved without boiling keep as well as those which are boiled. I have known a very few instances in which persons who were skilful in all these things did not succeed in preserving fruits in this way.
The water in which quinces are boiled should be saved. Boil the parings in it for a short time, if you intend to make a jelly, as long boiling them will make the water less clear. If you do not make jelly, boil the parings a good while, then strain off the water, and when it is cold bottle it. It will keep without theaddition of sugar two or three weeks, and will give a fine flavor to apple-pies or sauce. There is so much richness in the parings of quinces that they should never be thrown away without being boiled. The fruit should therefore be washed and wiped before it is pared, and all defective parts removed.
[The pear quince, though it becomes hard when preserved, and therefore is not as good for that purpose as the orange quince, is very rich, and makes fine marmalade.]
Marmalade.
Wash and wipe the quinces, and take out any dark spots there may be on the skins. Cut them up without paring, cores and all; cover them with water in the preserving kettle, and boil them until they are soft enough to be rubbed through a coarse hair sieve. Then weigh equal quantities of pulp and refined sugar, and boil the mixture an hour, stirring it steadily.
Made with nice brown sugar, it is very good, though not quite as handsome. When brown sugar is used it should be stirred an hour and a half.
Put it into moulds or deep plates, and when it is cold put a paper over it, pasted at the edges, and brushed with white of egg. Marmalade can be kept for almost any length of time.
Strawberries.
Take large strawberries not extremely ripe; weigh equal quantities of fruit and best sugar; lay the fruit in a dish, and sprinkle half the sugar over it; shake the dish a little, that the sugar may touch all the fruit. Next day make a syrup of the remainder of the sugar and the juice which you can pour off from the fruit in the pan, and as it boils lay in the strawberries, and boil them gently twenty minutes or half an hour.
Another.
Weigh equal quantities of fruit and sugar, and put them together over night. The next day boil the strawberries long enough to scald without shrinking them,—six or eight minutesafter they commence boiling. Then skim them out, and boil away the syrup half an hour; then pour it, hot, upon the strawberries.
Apple Jam (which will keep for years).
Weigh equal quantities of brown sugar and good sour apples. Pare and core them, and chop them fine. Make a syrup of the sugar, and clarify it very thoroughly; then add the apples, the grated peel of two or three lemons, and a few pieces of white ginger. Boil it till the apple looks clear and yellow. This resembles foreign sweetmeats. The ginger is essential to its peculiar excellence.
Pine-Apple Jam.
Grate sound but ripe pine-apples, and to a pound put three quarters of a pound of loaf sugar. Make a syrup and boil the grated pine-apple in it fifteen minutes.
Grape Jam.
Boil grapes very soft, and strain them through a sieve. Weigh the pulp thus obtained, and put a pound of crushed sugar to a pound of pulp. Boil it twenty minutes, stirring it often. The common wild grape is much the best for this use.
Quince Jam.
Weigh twelve ounces of brown sugar to one pound of quince. Boil the fruit in as little water as will do, until it is sufficiently soft to break easily; then pour off all the water and mash it with a spoon until entirely broken; put in the sugar, and boil twenty minutes, stirring it very often.
Another.
Chop a pound of quince (not boiled) in a pound of best sugar. When chopped fine, boil it twenty minutes. If you have some of the water in which quinces have been boiled, put in a gill;if you have not this, use pure water. This is very good, but not as easily digested as the other.
Raspberry Jam.
Pick the fruit over very carefully, as it is more apt than any other to be infested with worms. Weigh equal quantities of fruit and sugar; put the fruit into the kettle, or preserving pan, break it with a ladle, and stir continually. Let it boil quickly four or five minutes, then add the sugar, and simmer slowly a little while. The fruit, preserved in this way, retains its fresh taste much better than if the sugar is added at first. It is scarcely inferior to raspberries gathered from the vines. Some persons prefer to add currants or currant juice. A quart of currant juice to four quarts of raspberries is a good proportion. Boil it up, and put the fruit into it. If you wish to add currants, take fresh, ripe ones, a quart to three quarts of raspberries.
Strawberry Jam.
Put three pounds of sugar to two quarts of strawberries. Sprinkle the sugar upon the fruit, and let it stand an hour or two; then boil it twenty minutes, and meantime bruise the fruit with a spoon or ladle.
Apple Jelly.
Take any juicy, sour apples; wash and wipe them very clean, and cut them up without paring or taking out the cores. Put them into an earthen jar or baking pan with a very little water, and cover it with a paste of bread dough, rolled thin; (this keeps in the steam more effectually than a plate or lid). Put it in the oven after the bread is baked, and let it remain several hours. Then pour the whole into a linen bag, suspended in such a manner that it can be left to drip for some time. Put a pound of sugar to a pint of syrup; add any thing which is preferred, to flavor it. Boil ten minutes.
Another.
Take good sour apples, wash and wipe them, cut out any black spots upon the skin, and cut them up without paring or coring. Much of the richness of the apple is in the skin and core. Boil them in water enough to cover them, and when they become very soft, put the whole into a coarse linen bag, and suspend it between two chairs, with a pan under it, and leave it until it ceases to drip. Then press it a very little. Allow a pound of fine sugar to a pint of apple-syrup. If you choose, add the juice of a lemon to every quart of syrup. Boil up the apple-syrup, and skim it; heat the sugar in a dish in the stove oven, and add it as the syrup boils up, after being skimmed. Boil it gently twenty minutes or half an hour. Put it up in cups, tumblers, or moulds.
Crab-Apple Jelly.
Boil the fruit in water enough to cover it, until it is perfectly soft; then proceed just as directed in the last receipt.
Barberry Jelly.
This is made by boiling the fruit until the water is very strongly flavored with it; then put a pound of best sugar to a pint of juice. It should boil a little longer than currant or quince jelly.
Cranberry Jelly.
Wash and pick over the fruit carefully, and boil it till very soft in water enough to cover it. Then strain it through a hair sieve, and weigh equal quantities of the pulp and fine sugar. Boil it gently, and with care that it does not burn, fifteen or twenty minutes.
Currant Jelly.
Pick over the fruit, but leave it on the stems. Put it into the preserving kettle, and break it with a ladle or spoon, and when it is hot, squeeze it in a coarse linen bag until you canpress out no more juice. Then weigh a pound of sugar to a pint of juice. Sift the sugar, and heat it as hot as possible without dissolving or burning; boil the juice five minutes very fast, and while boiling add the hot sugar, stir it well, and when it has boiled again five minutes, set it off. The time must be strictly observed. Jelly to eat with meat does very well made with brown sugar, but must boil longer.
Another (without boiling).
Squeeze the currants in a coarse linen cloth, without taking off the stems. Weigh the juice, and allow a pound for a pound. The sugar should be sifted, and stirred in with the hand until it feels smooth and well dissolved. Put it into glasses, and set them in the sun near a window for two or three days. Then cover as directed for preserves and jellies. This will taste like newly made currant jelly at the end of a year, if kept in a cool and dry place. It will not keep well in a damp house.
Quince Jelly.
Take the water in which quinces have been boiled for preserving and for marmalade, and boil the clean parings until they are soft. (See directions in thereceiptfor preserving quinces without boiling the syrup). Then strain the water while very hot through a flannel bag, and allow a pound of best sugar for every pint. Put the sugar on a dish into the stove oven to heat; boil up the quince water; if any scum rises, take it off, and then stir in the hot sugar, and boil it slowly, but steadily, twenty minutes, or half an hour. The time necessary will depend somewhat on the water being more or less strongly flavored with the fruit.
To Preserve Fruit in Water.
Pick the fruit when ripe, but not mellow; put it into strong glass bottles, with wide mouths; fill them with cold water, cork them and tie down the corks, or cover them with a piece of bladder wet in warm water, and tied over close; then set theminto a flat-bottomed wash-boiler with a little hay under them, and cold water enough to come half-way up the sides of the bottles. Then heat the water gradually, and while that is doing melt some bees-wax and rosin, in equal quantities, and have it ready to use when the bottles are taken out of the boiler. This must be done as soon as the water in itbegins to boil. Shut all the doors and windows before you do it, for a draught of air will break the bottles. Throw a cloth over them till they are a little cooled.
As soon as you can handle them at all, dip the necks of the bottles into the melted rosin and wax, so as to cover the wholecork and bladder, and make it secure against the entrance of any air. If, in two or three months, a coat of mould should form on the top of the water, that will do no harm; on the contrary it will help to exclude the air, and for two months more will not hurt the fruit.
When about to use the fruit, take off the mould carefully, so as not to break it, then pour out the fruit and the water into a stew-pan, add some sugar, and stew it as you would fresh fruit for immediate use, and it will have the same flavor.
All sorts of plums, cherries, gooseberries, apricots, and even peaches, may be so preserved.